FIG. 1 depicts a conventional interactive television system 100, including a broadcast television transmitter 105, a broadcast antenna 110, and a pair of receiver units 115 and 120. Receiver units 115 and 120, also referred to as “Internet terminals” or “set-top boxes,” allow viewers to interact with network content via bi-directional (i.e., two-way) connections 122 and 123, watch broadcast television via a unidirectional (i.e., one-way) broadcast connection between antenna 110 and the receiver units, or simultaneously do both.
Receiver units 115 and 120 merge network and broadcast experiences, displaying icons, data, and other information along with broadcast video. Much of the displayed information is interactive, which is to say that the viewer can interact with the information to obtain a personalized experience. For example, an icon broadcast with a TV commercial can provide a link to additional information about an advertised product or service.
Broadcasters present viewers with interactive information by broadcasting a “trigger” 126 along with television video 130. Trigger 126 may include the interactive information and/or may provide a link to additional information resources. A link to additional information might include the pathname of a local file on receivers 115 and 120 or a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) for an Internet resource, such as a sponsor's Web site.
Web pages and other information resources that require a bi-directional connection to a remote information store are termed “connected content.” Locally stored information resources that can be accessed without a bi-directional connection to a remote information store are termed “disconnected content.” A locally stored electronic programming guide stored in local memory is an example of disconnected content. Disconnected content may include links to connected content.
A trigger identifying connected content typically causes receiver units 115 and 120 to display an icon offering a viewer the option of purchasing an advertised item by selecting the icon and filling out an order form. In the example of FIG. 1, trigger 126 has caused receiver units 115 and 120 to display an icon 135 that provides a hyperlink to an order form 145 on a remote information store 150. If a viewer selects icon 135 using e.g. a handheld remote control unit 140, then the viewer's receiver unit requests and receives order form 145. The viewer can then interact with order form 145 to submit user-specific information back to a merchant's server.
A trigger identifying disconnected content may also cause receiver units 115 and 120 to display an icon, but the information associated with the icon will be accessible without a bi-directional connection to remote information stores. For example, such a trigger might refer to an electronic programming guide stored in local memory on receiver units 115 and 120. Disconnected content can be delivered to receiver units 115 and 120 in a number of ways; for example, the viewer may load the content into local memory, or the content may be encoded into a broadcast television signal and transmitted to receiver units 115 and 120 for local storage.
Vendors who lease or sell receiver units provide their customers access to remote information stores, typically for a fixed monthly fee. These vendors in turn buy bandwidth from network equipment companies that supply the necessary hardware to connect receiver units to remote information stores. In a typical agreement between a receiver-unit vendor and a network equipment company, the costs to the vendor depend upon whether and how long their customers connect to remote information stores. Furthermore, the time during which a customer connects to a remote information store affects the charges accrued by service suppliers, peak-usage periods typically costing more per unit time than do periods of lower activity. Thus, the connection costs incurred by receiver-unit vendors depend upon whether and when their customers connect to remote information stores.
Receiver-unit vendors would like to offer different levels of service at different prices, so that customers who connect to remote information stores pay for the additional costs associated with connecting. By making customers who connect to remote information stores pay for connection costs, receiver-unit vendors (and others who support interactive television) can offer a lower level of interactive television service for cost-sensitive customers who do not want to pay to connect to remote information stores.